I saw this blog from another parent that was talking about how they only give their kids 3 gifts for Christmas as a way to simplify the holiday and help them be less stressed. It reminded me of when I was a kid and when all the presents were under the tree, it was a huge mound of gifts! It makes me wonder now how stressed my parents were during the holiday's. Were they always really stressed to make sure we had a good Christmas? Did they stop buying when it became too stressful to go shopping? Or did they really want to get us that many gifts. Now there were 5 of us kids, so that's a lot to begin with, but when I say there was a mound..some years there was a MOUND of gifts. I like to think that it made them really happy to do that for us and that buying and wrapping them was fun. I remember when I got old enough to start wrapping gifts, my mom would enlist my help to get everyone's gifts wrapped, but obviously not my own :) She taught me how to wrap and make it look really pretty with ribbons and bows. That is a really happy memory for me. After a while, even my brothers had me wrap the gifts they got others. It was really fun for me, and I still love wrapping today. I take a lot of pride in a good wrapping job, and while it probably sounds a little odd, it always reminds me of back then.
Now that the girls are getting older and Isabelle is starting to understand way more about Christmas and Santa, I really want to start some traditions that we couldn't before. Now being that there's my side, and also Grant's side, we have to do a little juggling to make sure we can spend time with both sides. But it works out amazing for us because my side does Christmas Eve, and his side does Christmas Day. So we just had to find a time in between that where we could do our own. We found Christmas Day in the morning is the perfect time. So what we're going to start this year is reading The Night Before Christmas as a bedtime story on Christmas Eve with the girls' bedtimes, put them down, fill the stockings, and put the presents out from Santa. Until then, the only presents that will be under the tree will be from family and from us. Then when we all get up Christmas Day, we'll have our Christmas opening of gifts and stockings. If anyone is getting together on his side, we can usually make that as it's in the afternoon/evening. Then they'll have the rest of the day to play. I think it's going to work out great!
One thing about me is I'm a giver. I love giving things to make people happy; whether it's things like toys or just a compliment or kind word. I'm always wanting to give my girls a ton of toys for Christmas and birthdays because I know it makes them happy, especially now that Izzy is old enough to want certain things. But I don't want it to become a chore and not fun to buy them. Plus, I don't want them to become ungrateful because they didn't get a certain toy. This year, we only bought a few toys for the girls and they're all apart of a larger plan. The reason itself was more to save on money because the holiday's have a tendency to sink us for the next 3 or 4 months between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I think I'm going think about buying the gifts with another frame of mind. Instead of thinking that I have to get them a crap ton of toys or certain ones, I'll try and think in the "quality, not quantity" mindset. It's hard because shopping for me is really fun and I'd buy them everything under the sun if I could. But we're obviously not exactly rich so our wallets cant handle that lol I don't think I could ever stop at just 3, but maybe put a 5-10 item limit for each girl or something... just a number that's more attainable for me to be happy with what I've gotten and not feel like I should have gotten more. I think that way, once the girls get older and start asking for certain things, they'll learn to prioritize what they want and always be grateful they got something instead of getting mad that they only got 10 gifts instead of 50 or something. I always want my children to be grateful for the things they have and not focus on the things they don't. Hopefully Grant and I can instill that in them early on... I think this is a good start anyway! Maybe in the years ahead we'll have them donate a toy or two to those in need during the holidays too. But plans like that are for another day. :)
